Tyranny of Kindness: Dismantling the Welfare System to End Poverty in America

The Washington Post reported the Pulitzer-nominated Tyranny of Kindness to be one of the most important books on welfare and poverty to be published in the last thirty years. This book, part biography, part expose and part political theory, is an authoritative indictment of the welfare system in the United States. Funiciello’s own first-hand experience with the “endless nightmare” of it as it was and in fact, continues to be under so-called “welfare reform” provides the emotional, heartrending backdrop to this powerful book. Acquainting us with the hard day to day realities of living on welfare, Funiciello exposes the absurdities of a system that hurts poor people — espescially women and their children — while spending most of its taxpayer dollars on an army of social welfare professionals whose interests are in fact alligned with the system — not with poor people. Tyranny goes beyond an analysis of the injustices and inefficiencies of the system to offer a humane, sensible, cost-effective alternative.